


Gradation (Between Today and Tomorrow)

by teletou



Category: Free!
Genre: Childhood, M/M, Near Future, relationship progression
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-23
Updated: 2015-07-23
Packaged: 2018-04-10 20:23:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4406270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teletou/pseuds/teletou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Seriously...”</p><p>A slow reach of his fingertips, and he delivers a gentle tap to Makoto's nose. </p><p>“Tachibana...”</p><p>Makoto's nose scrunches in reply, as a shadow of a cloud ripples across his hand, dipping into the ridges between his fingers as it passes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gradation (Between Today and Tomorrow)

1。

The plastic bag cradled in his arms rustles when he takes a step, the sole of his toe touching the tips of Rin's shadow. He watches Rin's hair flare over his shoes, distantly sees Rin walking in front of him. A short draw of breath – he hops, lands on his tiptoes onto shapes fluttering on the darkened tile.

Makoto stands still as Rin's shadow phases out from underneath his feet. He keeps his gaze on the dark grey line left in its place, a tightrope under his arches from the window frame.

“I'm back!” Rin calls with the rattle of their classroom door.

When Makoto looks up, he sees the ends of Rin's bright red hair bounce behind him, brushing the back of his collar before it disappears, out of his line of sight.

“Tachibana-kun?”

He jumps slightly at the call of his name, looks down to find his curry bread, along with the dented edge of his melon milk, in a worried Aki's hands.

“Ah! Sorry,” he says, taking the crumpled plastic bag from the floor. “I was just spacing out.”

“Oh.” She steals a glance into the classroom. “Don't hurt yourself.”

“I won't, don't worry. Thank you, Zaki-chan.”

 

 

2.。

“Hey, Tachibana,” he murmurs to the seat behind his.

Rin taps his feet on his chair as he sits on the windowsill, his cheeks against his palm, elbows on his knees.

His answer is a quiet snore, Makoto's hair sticking up at odd angles against his arm.

“Tachibana, wake up...”

He watches his classmates patter about, groups huddled over their desks, chatting over their meal, students in the hallway through the windows across the room.

“Tachibana, I don't know where Nanase is and you just ate lunch.”

The wooden window frame is warm under his grip when he leans backwards, letting his hair fall out of his face. He sighs, a long wisp of breath into the sky.

“It's not good to sleep right after a meal, you know.”

Above the scattering of clouds, he vaguely sees fourth graders run laps around the upside-down school grounds. He finds a thin stripe of white stretching from the horizon, follows it to see Makoto from the next window over, brown hair muted from the glass, the sunlight reflecting off the surface.

With downward swing of his legs for momentum, he jerks back upright, bouncing a little on his seat.

“Seriously...”

A slow reach of his fingertips, and he delivers a gentle tap to Makoto's nose.

“Tachibana...”

Makoto's nose scrunches in reply, as a shadow of a cloud ripples across his hand, dipping into the ridges between his fingers as it passes.

 

 

3。

”I think I love you,” Makoto whispers to the summer shower.

White and blue jerseys, a wet spot of black and red on the shoulder next to his. Rin is looking straight ahead, to a point somewhere beyond the curtain of raindrops.

He finds the sun reflected in the puddle by their feet when he looks down. A droplet of water slides down the back of Rin's hand, over the groove of a knuckle and around his finger. Makoto smiles when he sees the ripples in the sun, rolling over the clouds and slipping under their soles.

_It's okay, for now, if he didn't hear._

 

 

4。

Rin's hair splays over his arms, the windowsill, streams of red across the wooden frame. Makoto closes his apartment door behind him, quietly, softly, walks down the hall with cotton-clad footsteps. He leaves the lights off, lets the afternoon sun filter into the room – a patch of orange on his floor, Rin's shadow pooling under his legs.

A poke of his toe to a socked sole, and he receives a little twitch in response.

The first touch, the tip of his fingers to flyaway strands of hair – ticklish on the pads of his skin, across the back of his hand, around his wrists. Makoto smiles as he bends down, twining his fingers further into his hair, pressing a kiss onto Rin's temple.

A small murmur, “You're going to catch a cold,” and Makoto moves away, lets Rin's hair fall, bit by bit.

 

 

5。

Rin wakes up to the sound of the TV playing in the living space behind him, a blanket around his shoulders. He sees the top of Makoto's brown hair over the sofa, edges catching the soft glow from the screen.

At the first step, he nearly slips on his feet. He catches himself, balancing on a streak of light from the street lamps outside, steadying his shadow across the floor. Rin takes a breath, jumps over to the darkened wood, away from the window, to stand beside the armrest.

He taps the tips of toes against the floor, twice. He laces his fingers behind his back.

“Ma~ ko~ _to_ ,” he whispers.

A blanket draped around both their shoulders, Rin falls back to sleep, knees pulled to his chest, elbows knocking with Makoto's.

 

 

6。

“I love you.”

Rin hears a soft splash of water somewhere beside him as Makoto drops a goldfish into his bowl.

"Is that your answer?"

Water ripples around his scoop, rice paper gone and washed away into the pool.

"Huh?"

"From three years ago.” A smile under warm lanterns, above weaving colours of swimming goldfish. “It isn't nice to keep someone waiting you know."

"You're awfully cheeky about this," Rin says.

“Ah, so you _did_ hear me,” Makoto laughs, a curled hand brought up to cover his mouth. "And I'm not, actually." Rin blinks when an open palm is presented in front of him. "It's probably gross, though."

It kind of is, and Rin wants to laugh, when he puts his hand over Makoto's, squeezes in-between their fingers.

"I've been nervous all this time," Makoto whispers.

"Sorry." He wishes it wasn't all that he could say, when he wanted to say so much more.

"Nah." Makoto looks at goldfish he caught, festival lights reflecting off the water's surface onto his face, eyes soft and edges crinkled with a smile. "Don"t be."

"Rin?" He says, after a while.

“Hmm?”

"Thank you."

 


End file.
